Old Fig...
Posted: October 20th, 2011, 11:48 pm
I just thought that I may share with you the story of a fig that I was lucky enough to claim at the begining of this year. I must stress that also this is my first year doing bonsai and I think I am one lucky person......
I was lucky enough, that, I had the time and the means to join this year "The School of Bonsai" and after the first lesson, I went and visited my parents...now my parents have lived (where they are for 54 years) and were in the process of getting rid of some of the plants that weren't cutting the mustard, and one of these plants was an approx. 40 years old fig, that had been grown in a large black pot and left to fend for itself. I quickly claimed this tree for myself & the next week I spoke with Clinton (our sage & great generous president) if I could bring the tree up to their nursury and lets start see what we can do with it...
The tree was that big that it wouldn't fit standing in my little Toyota Echo and had to be laid down, so driving along Northern road to get to the Nesci's Nursery, every turn,curve, bend in the road, the potplant would role and my car would go with it, so, at 50km/h I was fishing out the tail on the car. Anyway, to cut a long story short, everything was cut off the tree, and it was left with the stump and two small branch stumps.
I took the tree tonight to the "School of Bonsai" to see what we could now do with the tree after eight months...of course I was told to defoliate the tree, so we could see where the branches are....Filled up two buckets with just leaves and the amount of sap that was at the bottem of one of the buckets, we could have made a small rubber ball from. After defoliation, I found it amazing how the tree had developed so many new branches. It was then discussed and worked on by the teachers and the tree is looking brilliant...even without leaves. (I have photos that I took, but they're on my phone & I'm trying to work out the best way to get them to this site...so hold on, one or two days & it will be okay.)
The moral of the story is...what is someone's trash...could well be a bonsai artist's treasure!
Cheers
Ripley
(Photos on their way)
I was lucky enough, that, I had the time and the means to join this year "The School of Bonsai" and after the first lesson, I went and visited my parents...now my parents have lived (where they are for 54 years) and were in the process of getting rid of some of the plants that weren't cutting the mustard, and one of these plants was an approx. 40 years old fig, that had been grown in a large black pot and left to fend for itself. I quickly claimed this tree for myself & the next week I spoke with Clinton (our sage & great generous president) if I could bring the tree up to their nursury and lets start see what we can do with it...
The tree was that big that it wouldn't fit standing in my little Toyota Echo and had to be laid down, so driving along Northern road to get to the Nesci's Nursery, every turn,curve, bend in the road, the potplant would role and my car would go with it, so, at 50km/h I was fishing out the tail on the car. Anyway, to cut a long story short, everything was cut off the tree, and it was left with the stump and two small branch stumps.
I took the tree tonight to the "School of Bonsai" to see what we could now do with the tree after eight months...of course I was told to defoliate the tree, so we could see where the branches are....Filled up two buckets with just leaves and the amount of sap that was at the bottem of one of the buckets, we could have made a small rubber ball from. After defoliation, I found it amazing how the tree had developed so many new branches. It was then discussed and worked on by the teachers and the tree is looking brilliant...even without leaves. (I have photos that I took, but they're on my phone & I'm trying to work out the best way to get them to this site...so hold on, one or two days & it will be okay.)
The moral of the story is...what is someone's trash...could well be a bonsai artist's treasure!
Cheers
Ripley
(Photos on their way)